Icon Brand Mars Eyes Expansion Strategy in Topeka, Kansas

Chocolate maker Mars will begin construction next week on a $100 million expansion at its Topeka, Kans., facility where it produces a variety of M&M’s and Snickers products.

Chocolate maker Mars will begin construction next week on a $100 million expansion at its Topeka, Kans., facility where it produces a variety of M&M’s and Snickers products.

When the Topeka plant opened last year, it was the first new Mars site built in North America in the past 35 years. This latest development, which will add 70 jobs, brings the company’s total investment in Topeka to $430 million.

The expansion is a departure from broader trends at legacy food companies, which in some cases have reduced U.S. production capacity as consumers shift away from packaged food.

As Fortune noted in its “War on Big Food” June 1 cover story, the annual volume of packaged food sold in the U.S. has fallen more than 1% for each of the past two years, according to research by Bernstein.